Blending flavors
Because the food culture of Taiwan’s ethnic groups has undergone a long period of exchange and integration, blending ingredients and flavors with other traditions has become common. Chen Di, a late Ming Dynasty scholar, in his treatise Dong Fan Ji (Records of Eastern Barbarians), mentioned that Taiwan’s indigenes planted green onions, ginger, yams, and taro. However, these vegetables are common in other food traditions, so today they are no longer regarded as unique to indigenous culture. Other wild vegetables such as bird’s-nest fern, okra, and facing-heaven peppers are also quite common across cultures.
The use of wild vegetables in cooking has received promotion recently, and as a result some previously uncommon vegetables have gradually conquered the taste buds of Han Chinese. Lin Deci, an elder of the Rukai tribal village of Taromak, says that the Rukai use a wild vegetable, called kekerere in their language, as the main ingredient for dumplings that are very popular with tourists.
Lin’s children, living on the mountain, sell the Rukai’s traditional food a-bai across the country through Internet and telephone orders, with sales of 700–800 per day. The farthest orders have come from Kinmen.
To make a-bai, ground millet and minced pork are wrapped in the leaves of Trichodesma calycosum, and then in shell ginger leaves. After steaming, the shell ginger leaves are removed and it’s ready to eat. It looks like a type of rice cake. Wu Xueyue says that indigenous people didn’t have zongzi (glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves) in the early days, but because of the need for a simple snack food when they went hunting or gathering vegetables, every tribe has developed a similar food, such as the Paiwan’s jinafu, a-bai from the Puyuma and the Rukai, the Amis’ alifengfeng, and bamboo-tube rice from the Atayal and Tsou. But they’re all similar to the Han Chinese zongzi.
Japanese travel writer Mari Katakura, in her new book Ultimate Impressions of Taiwan, expresses her particular appreciation to the Puyuma people of Taitung County who treated her like one of their own. At every farewell, they filled her bag with food like sugar-apples, papayas, and wild vegetables. They even worried that she might feel hungry on the train, and prepared a-bai for her to eat as she traveled.
Joyce Yeh, who has observed the interaction between indigenous people and their visitors over the long term, says that for outsiders who sincerely want to learn about indigenous culture and the stories behind each dish, no matter where they come from, the indigenous people of Taiwan are always generous in sharing the authentic flavors of their food, even sharing the actual food made and reserved for the use of their tribe. In her hunting experiences with the Atayal, she was invited to eat raw flying squirrel testicles, symbolizing a sort of blood-brotherhood with the tribe.
From an evolutionary perspective, disadvantaged and less capitalized ethnic groups have often kept alive the rich traditions, stories and rituals connected with their food, all of which helps to explain why in recent years indigenous dishes have become an attraction for curious tourists. Thinking optimistically, food as a medium can not only provide opportunities for cultural exchange and mutual understanding between different ethnic groups, but can also help to boost their confidence when they need the power to stand up to the world. Thus a simple item like food may bear enormous cultural significance.
Indigenous ingredients and cooking utensils come from the earth; a-bai and zhutong fan are very similar to Han Chinese zongzi in terms of ingredients and preparation.
As the indigenous diet has developed, roasted whole boar is today the most exotic flavor in indigenous cuisine.
Indigenous restaurants not only offer delicious food, but also provide an insight into the culture. The photo shows Badasan Restaurant in Bali District, New Taipei City. Waiters wearing the traditional clothes of the Seediq tribe are serving mixed ethnic dishes—a fusion of indigenous and Han Chinese dishes that cater to tourists’ tastes, and perhaps evoke images of indigenous culture.
he Amis’ “lunch box,” alifengfeng, containing glutinous rice, pork and fish wrapped in screwpine leaves, tastes as good as it looks.